Australian Word Map

togs

plural noun a swimming costume. Compare bathers, cossie, cozzie, costume, swimmers, swimsuit.
Contributor's comments: All over Queensland and in New Zealand.

Contributor's comments: As a Queenslander I always used the term "togs" or "swimming togs" but moving from state to state, especially in WA, I have been almost ridiculed by the use of the word - and now I don't know what to call them!

Contributor's comments: 'Togs' was also used in the Top End of the NT, certainly in the 1950s-'70s. None of the other synonyms (bathers, cossie, etc.) was used - we all wore togs when swimming.

Contributor's comments: Togs is basically the only term I've heard used in Queensland for "swimming outfit", despite southerners insisting that we have been known to call them swimmers or bathers. The only other acceptable term is bordies or boardshorts since the demise of DTs.

Contributor's comments: I have lived my 50 years in WA and as kids we always called bathers "cossie" or "togs".

Contributor's comments: My Dad, from Adelaide, mostly uses togs or trunks for "swimming costume". My kids now refer to swimmers as "trogs".

Contributor's comments: I grew up in Qld and togs were what you swam in. On moving to the NT in the mid 70's togs was often used to describe your clothes in general. On moving to SA & then WA there is no way I would use the word outside our home as people look at you as if you have just been beamed down from a passing planet. Swimmers or bathers is now the go.

Contributor's comments: We used to use this term for swimming costumes when I was growing up in South West WA.

Contributor's comments: Intrigued to see your map includes the ACT - where I found that the only people who used 'togs' were Queenslanders, and everyone else used either 'cossie' or 'swimmers'.

Contributor's comments: I grew up in coastal western Victoria, around Lorne in 1950s & 60s. Togs were definitely the only things anyone wore when going swimming.

Contributor's comments: I've heard `togs' very occasionally in Melbourne, but it's usually `bathers', and if someone says `cossie' you know the speaker is a recently arrived Sydneysider.

Contributor's comments: There are an array of words used to describe togs. Possibly more because of the lack of universal acceptance of the alternate names. Common terms used include speedos, DTs (abbreviation of "dick togs"), sluggos, swimmers.

Contributor's comments: You should extend the coverage of this word into northern NSW - down as far as Byron at least. My family are from the Tweed, they & theirs use "togs".

Contributor's comments: Anybody that calls 'swimmers' 'togs' in the Illawarra or Shoalhaven region is likely to have their head punched in.

Contributor's comments: As a Queenslander swimming gear was always called "togs".

Contributor's comments: During my high school years I moved from Ipswich Queensland were "togs" meant swimming attire to a grammar school in Melbourne where "togs" meant any sporting attire. At the very first cricket training we were told to go and get into our togs for training. I was confused so I went slowly to see what others were changing into. Then I put on my cricket clothes when it was obvious the coach didn't want us to go swimming!

Contributor's comments: Since coming to the West Island from NZ, I have (like your other correspondents) almost been ridiculed out of the use of the word "togs" which was used exclusively on the other side of the Tasman when I was a kid. I'd never heard the expression "costume" for what one wore in the water, for example: the first time I was invited to "bring my costume" to a family sporting event, I wondered whether clown or fairy??? I notice that 'cossie' now seems to be fairly common in NZ, but usually in a semi-joking way! "Togs" must still be what everyone thinks of themselves as wearing!

Contributor's comments: In Perth during the 50s and 60s I NEVER heard this term; they were universally "bathers" or "bathing suit" (for girls).




Contributor's comments: Clothes you wear for swimming: "Have you brought your toggs to the beach?"

Contributor's comments: Wrong wrong wrong, togs is most definately not used in Darwin, to use such a term would invoke considerable laughter by the masses and the majority saying ... What!? ... are you a Queenslander or something? After all what is a tog?

Contributor's comments: It was always togs in our family in Geelong. Wasn't till I got to high school and for some weird reason not many other people called them togs. And I changed to calling them bathers to save the embarrasment.

Contributor's comments: Known as togs on King Island in the 60s early 70s.

Contributor's comments: Cossie was the name for swimming costumes when I was growing up in the Riverina, however, my brothers used the term togs for theirs.

Contributor's comments: As a child growing up in Williamstown (postcode 3016) in the 50s & 60s those things you swim in were always called "togs" but now togs is almost a forgotten word and most people I know refer to them as bathers.

Contributor's comments: In Orange all my friends called their swimming gear togs or scungies, for small ones but not shorts or boardies, but my wife from Sydney and our children in Newcastle call them swimmers. Some friends in Victoria call them bathers. Togs could also mean other types of clothes eg: 'sporting togs' for sports uniform, and you were told to get dressed by 'get your togs on, we're going out', etc.

Contributor's comments: 'Grab your togs, we're going swimming', comment used regularly at the height of summer in East Gippsland.

Contributor's comments: I can't believe one of your Riverina contributors called togs "cozzies". In SW Riverina they were always togs, but just across the border in Swan Hill it was also sometimes togs and sometimes bathers. I agree with other contributors that people in Perth seem to find the word togs completely ridiculous. It's such a good word though that I'm not giving it up, despite the protests from the kids.

Contributor's comments: [Melbourne informant] Always used as a slang for bathers in our house, usually when in a hurry - "get your togs on - we're heading down the beach"

Contributor's comments: used in the Brisbane area.

Contributor's comments: I attended a Christian Brothers school in Perth. Most of our teachers were from the eastern states and always referred to bathers (swimming costumes) as togs. Apart from the use of that term at school, I have not heard the expression here in WA.

Contributor's comments: I arrived in Brisbane in 1961 from UK. It was always togs used by everyone I knew. It used to be swimming trunks in UK, but I have never heard that here. I lived at postcodes 4122, 4152 and 4151 for 25 years before coming here.

Contributor's comments: This word is purely a Queensland/ Northern Rivers term - I have not heard it used at all since relocating to NSW and am looked at strangely when I use the term.

Contributor's comments: I grew up in country NSW, of mixed parentage (NSW and Victorian). We all wore togs for swimming. We moved to Queensland in the fifties, and were relieved to find that the incredibly twee expressions "cozzie", "swimmers" and "bathers" were not in use.

Contributor's comments: I am amazed to hear togs described as a Queensland term. I grew up in Melbourne where we always swam in togs (the only other use of the word was in "work togs" for special work clothing). "Bathers" was used only as a very formal term. We were amazed to hear a big boofy Sydneysider use the hilariously effeminate term "cossie". When I moved to Queensland (Mackay and Redcliffe) in the 1980s, togs was unknown except as a rare term for clothes in general. The Queenslanders all wore "swimmers".

Contributor's comments: Funny no mention of togs in Canberra. Coming originally from Sydney/North Coast it was swimming costume or cozzies, but I recall togs creeping in. That seems to be a Melbourne usage, and maybe it came with the big Public Service transfer from Melbourne to Canberra in the '60s. I well remember the first terylene racing swimsuit and, from then on, it was definitely speedos!

Contributor's comments: It's always been togs for me living in Queensland.

Contributor's comments: swimming costume: "Put your togs on for a swim."

Contributor's comments: Swimming costume: "Grab your togs, we're going for a swim."


Contributor's comments: bathers, swimmers... typically said by fathers: "Get your togs on so we can go swim in the dam."

Contributor's comments: As a kid growing up in Richmond in the early 60's, the "only" word to use was togs. I knew of no other at the time. I think that words such as bathers or swimmers came into common usage in later years.

Contributor's comments: Definitely "put your togs on to go for a swim" in Albury, now my children do that in Sydney!

Contributor's comments: In Melbourne in the 1940s and 1950s we used the term togs. My Dad did grow up in a number of places in Australia inclucing Western Australia and Thursday Island. Mum was a Melbourne girl.

Contributor's comments: I was born in Melbourne, Victoria and lived in the Victorian countryside for a few years and have called my swimming clothes - togs - always, I've never used any other word.